The Smartest Super Bowl Commercial In Years.

Now, I saw this spot a week before it aired during the big game, so I didn't consider it a true Super Bowl spot. But if there's one spot-- indeed one campaign-- worth learning something from, it's from Denny's.

First, it's funny. Damn funny. The casting works, the writing works, the direction is impeccable. It looks, sounds, and feels just as it should, so hats off to the creative team at Goodby, the director, and the client for having the guts to do it right.

But there's more at work here. Denny's has seized on a brilliant opportunity to deposition the competition and take full ownership of breakfast. IHOP has abandoned it, and no one else has really come out to say, "we are breakfast." Until now. Good for Denny's. And better yet, they've opted to define what breakfast is. Eggs. Bacon. Pancakes. Anything but the Rooty-Tooty-Fresh-And-Fruity.

And the clincher: today they offered a free breakfast to everyone in America. Simple as that. Come in, eat, it's free. And from what I've read, America showed up and ate.

There are three meals in a day, and with one brilliantly thought out campaign, Denny's has taken sole possession of one of them. This is killer, pro-active, go for the throat marketing, and we can all learn from it.

Comments

[Lynn Clifton]

Just curious about cost . . .

[JR]

Reminds me of the clever Dunkin Donuts campaign -America Runs on Dunkin--and how the positioned themselves vs. the frou-frou- venti-doubleshot-skinny-carmel-macciato Starbucks giant. Perhaps good and simple is back in vogue.